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Saturday, February 8, 2014

#908: Richard Mann

Richard Mann, ND (officially “doctor of naturopathy”; more
accurately “not a doctor) is a naturopath and (at least used to be) chair of the department of “clinical homeopathy” at
Bastyr University, one of the most significant “teaching” instutitions devoted
to pseudo-,
anti- and cargo cult science in the US (also here, the linked page also includes a feeble defense of naturopathy by one Christopher Johnson), and at
least affiliated with the Bastyr Center for Natural Health. Bastyr, which is of
course prominently featured on quackwatch,
offers several courses in complementary and alternative medicine,
most of which require several credits of homeopathy, so Mann’s gang is deeply
involved in Bastyr’s students’ pseudoeducation.

Apparently our Mann is not the same as Richard Mann of
Berean Watch Ministries and signatory to A Scientific Dissent from Darwinism,
though he would arguably have deserved an entry as well.

Diagnosis: Bastyr sports quite a number of faculty, and Mann
is admittedly only one of a large number of people doing their best to spread
pseudoscience and quackery through that institution. It may thus be unfair to
single out him in particular. But Mann is clearly a loon and clearly qualified
for an entry in our Encyclopedia; recognizing that covering all of these loons
is beyond even us, though we can at least attempt to call out a few of them.